大象传媒

News and views from the business world.

Pirc, a major advisor to institutional investors, says M&S shareholders should vote against the firm's pay report at today鈥檚 annual meting in protest at the new chief executive鈥檚 拢15m pay-packet. We ask Alan McDougal, managing director at Pirc, how he came to be paid so much.

Unemployment figures out later are expected to show a fall of 20,000 in the three months to the end of May. But the OBR says the emergency budget will lead to a further 160,000 job losses in the public sector by 2015, on top of the 600,000 already predicted. Alan Downey, head of public sector at the consultancy KPMG, says the cuts will soon start to have a major impact on the number of people out of work.

Anyone who signs up for a mobile phone contract should have a two week grace period if reception in their area is poor, accoriding to the Communications Consumer Panel. The panel's chair, Anna Bradley, says customers aren't being given enough information before they sign on the dotted line.

The Organisation for International Investment, is in the UK this week to talk to business leaders about the impact of the BP oil spill. We speak to Allyson Stewart Allen, author of the book Working with Americans, about current attitudes to foreign businesses in the US.